BuzzFeed — and, just to put this in perspective, it’s one of the biggest media outlets in the world, with 200 million readers — published a major feature on the jewelry of Russian female officials based on our investigations. At ACF (the Anti-Corruption Foundation), we call this line of work "trinket-spotting," and just recently there was a hit game we made together with Meduza on the subject.
War, troop movements, corruption, and all this "bling ring" stuff — that’s all that seems to be left of Russia coverage in the Western media.
None of our science or culture gets any attention anymore — just this "bling ring." And then the Kremlin wonders why it pays PR people hundreds of millions to improve Russia’s image in the West (not to mention the billions spent on RT, formerly Russia Today), yet things only keep getting worse.
Because government officials go to work decked out in so much jewelry as if they were Kim Kardashian. Except that, unlike Kim Kardashian, their official incomes don’t cover it. That’s the whole image right there.
And do read BuzzFeed.
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